News Item

Mobile text messages used in bid to cut school truancy

Sunraysia Daily, Saturday, March 12, 2005
12 March 2005

MOBILE phones are now being used by a number of district schools as the latest tool to combat absenteeism.

The nine Sunraysia New South Wales schools are using a unique computer-generated text messaging system to alert parents if their students are absent from school. Parents are then able to quickly notify the school if their child is at home -- or take steps to find out where they are.

The pioneering system has been a considerable success since it was introduced locally in August last year, according to NSW Department of Education attendance officer Gill Wakefield.

"Schools have been working hard to improve attendance and parent to school contact and this is one of the most positive initiatives seen to date," she said.

The nine schools involved in the program are Coomealla High, and primary schools at Euston, Gol Gol, Buronga, Dareton, Wentworth, Pomona, Palinyewah and Pooncarie.

"We're still in the trial period, and there are some issues that need to be sorted out in regards to connecting the system to landline phones, but it seems to be working well," Ms Wakefield said.

"While absentee rates are different across all nine schools, we have seen some improvement across the board. For example, we sent out a text message to the parent of one student who was missing -- and a half an hour later he was dropped off at school.

"So it does get results -- it makes both the kids and the parents more accountable.

"And it shows that the schools care . . . that we really want to know where their children are if they're not at school, and the school hasn't been told."

Ms Wakefield said in many instances student absences in primary school were condoned by the parents or guardians. The new system provided the opportunity for parents to send an almost "immediate" response to the school's message, she said.

While figures indicated most Sunraysia residents owned mobile phones, those who didn't could still be contacted via landline -- once some adjustments are made to the system during the coming weeks.

And Ms Wakefield said the system could be used to issue a range of messages other than just those advising of a students' absence.

"Some of our schools already have above average attendances so they will be using the system to send other messages to parents -- to let them know about things that might be on at their school . . . there's just so many applications."

Ms Wakefield said the introduction of the system was a credit to the principals of the nine schools involved.

"They got together and decided to do something really pro-active to help attendance rates across all the schools," she said.

"Funding has come from the schools themselves, so it's been a really brave move on their behalf to try something like this."

The project has won the full support of the Council of Australian Governments, which has an Aboriginal working party dealing with issues of importance to the Aboriginal community.

Aboriginal community liaison officer Trish O'Donnell, who is also a member of the Buronga Public School Parent, Caregiver and Community committee, said the scheme had been readily accepted by parents.

"I believe it is an excellent idea," she said.

"It establishes a real partnership between the schools, the parents and the students."

The Messageyou-Schools system has been created specifically for schools by MGM Wireless Ltd. MGM Wireless Ltd chief executive Mark Fortunatow said text messaging was well accepted by parents because it was a discreet means of communication -- allowing them to re- ply quickly to either reassure or alert the school to a problem.

"At the same time, the system has helped the school fulfil its duty to care to protect children from possible harm, and reduced the cost to schools in terms of time and money spent on phone calls and other follow-up."

Mr Fortunatow said the system had been launched in South Australia in 2003 after an extensive 18-month developmental period -- and was now used in 110 schools across SA, NSW, Queensland and Western Australia.

"The minimum improvement in schools using the system is 25 percent, and in some cases the problem has been virtually eliminated," he said.

He said yesterday it was "fantastic" how the nine Sunraysia schools had worked together to assist the well-being of their students.

"The community really needs to be commend- ed for taking this project on -- it's a real feather in the cap for the local schools," he said.

The implementation of the system was "quite a big project" for any school to undertake, he said. Schools on the Victorian side of the border had been made aware of the system, he said.

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Mobile text messages used in bid to cut school truancy

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